Joe Roubicek: The Predatory Bank Tellers

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~  Mark Twain

Let’s begin with this Sun Sentinel blurb on Ganesh Viswanathan, a bank teller I arrested for fraud back in 1989.

2 Charged With Forgery
October 12, 1989|Staff reports
FORT LAUDERDALE — A couple were arrested on Wednesday on charges of forging checks worth $14,380 from a bank where the husband was employed, police said.

Arrested on theft and forgery charges were Ganesh Viswanathan and his wife, Patricia, both 24, of the 5600 block of Northeast Second Terrace.

Detective Joseph Roubicek said the couple forged and cashed two checks for themselves from the North Ridge Bank, where Ganesh Viswanathan was a teller. Both of the suspects have been fired from at least two other local banks, police said.

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Now here’s what really happened in that case …

A bookkeeper for a Fort Lauderdale business went to the North Ridge Bank on a Friday to do the company payroll. It was routine, or at least that’s what she thought. Weeks later, she was facing arrest for embezzling money from her employer. She appeared to have cashed thousands of dollars in counter checks, along with the regular payroll and the evidence implicating her was overwhelming:
Forged counterchecks where uttered and time stamped in unison with her regular payroll.

She was on video standing at the counter during the transactions.

The bank manager initialed each countercheck, along with the teller’s initials, confirming the transactions by the bookkeeper.

It appeared the bookkeeper had tried to conceal the theft by mixing the counterchecks in with the regular payroll checks, a common method used by dirty bookkeepers.

But she didn’t do it.

Full Article and Source:
The Predatory Bank Tellers
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